Certain principles could be adapted in order to make the customers` perception better. These would be as follows… Have a strong impressive ending, as that is what remains in the customers` recollection. Get bad experiences out of the way early, people prefer undesirable events to be dealt with as soon as possible, so that there is something good in relation to look forward to. Segment pleasure, combine pain – by this method all the pain can be dealt with as soon as possible and overall it would seem that the pleasure was greater than the pain. Build commitment through choice, people like to be in control of the actions involved, especially an uncomfortable experience. Give people rituals and stick to them – people find comfort, order and meaning in repetitive, familiar activities. Rituals are particularly important in longer-term professional-service encounters.
Finally the most important aspect in a service encounter is the customers perceptions of it. This research paper could be put into the general review category. It deals with some concepts and techniques to achieve good customer perceptions on the service. The review is structured in a formal yet easy to read manner which keeps the reader engrossed in the article. It also emphasises on the aspects of how customer perception could be improved with the use of example which helps to convince the reader of what is being said.
The article “the attitudes of British national health service managers and clinicians towards the introduction of benchmarking” deals with the aspects of benchmarking. Research is carried out on British NHS (National Health Service). Since this article deals with research been carried out on the hospital staff it would fit into the research paper category. Benchmarking is portrayed as an important means of improving efficiency. It implied freedom to exchange information about best medical practices and associated costs. The article discusses the assessing of quality and performance in the things that count the most to the customers. The main stages are setting, delivering and monitoring standards. Collaboration was to replace competition, by improving the networks of interaction between healthcare professionals, whose inherent desire is to improve quality of care.
This article also portrays a study which is conducted on two groups; the central managers and finance staff, and the medicals managers and clinicians. It also focuses on the attitudes of the respondents towards a process of change. It also tests the hypothesis that “for benchmarking to be successful, respondents would have expressed neutral or favourable responses”.
The article ‘On theory in operations management’ discusses the nature of scientific inquiry in general terms. It examines the implications for what should be expected from the theory in operations management. it also portrays through examples how theories such as “Theory of Swift, Even Flow” and the “Theory of Performance Frontiers” and their related laws might be developed. The Theory of Swift, Even Flow addresses the phenomenon of cross-factory productivity differences. The Theory of Performance Frontiers deals with multiple dimensions of factory performance and seeks to unify prior statements regarding cumulative capabilities and trade-offs.
The measure of the quality of a firm’s performance can be made by comparison with the performance of other companies known for being the “best in class,” which is a process known as benchmarking.(Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons 2001, p.580) Benchmarking is the search for best practices that lead to superior performance (Camp, 1989). It enables improvements in efficiency to be based on proven practices, rather than undertaken incrementally and with only and internal focus (Dence, 1995, p151). Benchmarking is provides a framework for continuous improvement, and this is meant to be done by making the company more efficient adapting to changes and involving technological advances. Therefore in the article involving the NHS case study it can be seen how benchmarking is used as a measure to judge the competitiveness. They also use benchmarking in order to work together by sharing the best practices in order to improve as a group.
Operations management is concerned with improving the quality by maximising the quality throughput, reducing waste and improving efficiency. All these factors work hand in hand in providing better quality in the end result.
When service encounters are looked into, it is easier for the staff to expect different perceptions from various customer. By studying the different consumer behaviours, it makes it easier for the staff to understand their consumers. It also results in the employees being aware of what to expect. Overall this improves the quality of a service. In a service which involves customer interaction the consumer perception is the most important aspect of the service as it determines whether the customer would be loyal to the firm or not.
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References:
Fitzsimmons J.A. & Fitzsimmons M.J, (2001), Service Management, Operations, Strategy and Information Technology (3rd edition), McGraw Hill, p.580
